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Pancreas Holds Potent Stem Cells - Appear To Be As Powerful As Those From Embryos By Gabe Romain Betterhumans Staff 6/2/2004 4:41 PM Adult stem cells have been found in the pancreas that appear to be as potent as stem cells taken from embryos. The stem cells, extracted by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute http://tinyurl.com/37h4c and the University of Lübeck http://tinyurl.com/24yhj in Germany, reproduce well and are able to differentiate into many different cell types. "An easily accessible source for the extraction of highly potent stem cells has been discovered, in almost any vertebrate but also in the human body, regardless of sex and age," say the researchers. Revolutionary repair The finding could address a big hurdle for stem cell research: Embryonic stem cells can grow into any of the 200 cell types in the body but are controversial, while adult stem cells are easily accessible but thought to be considerably less able to regenerate tissues for treating diseases such as Parkinson's. Recent studies http://tinyurl.com/227bl have suggested a regenerative role for a type of cell called a pancreatic stellate cell that exists in the pancreas http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreas a gland that secretes digestive enzymes and insulin. For their study, Lübeck researcher Charli Kruse and colleagues extracted the stem cells from both rat and human pancreases. They grew the cells in petri dishes for several months and found that they could produce cell types expressing markers for a variety of cells, including muscle cells, nerve cells and glial cells. Important qualities The stem cell lines were found to be pluripotent—incapable of growing into a whole organism, but able to become any other type of cell in the body. Another important quality of the stem cell lines is that they can be preserved in liquid nitrogen http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen without losing their pluripotent capabilities. This is important because it means that the stem cell lines can be stored for treatments. The research highlights the versatility of adult stem cells and could lead to a reevaluation of their use for treating inherited disorders and degenerative diseases, say the researchers. The research is reported in the journal Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00339/ (read abstract). http://tinyurl.com/2ug4n SOURCE: Betterhumans, Canada http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-06-02-2 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn